Middlesbrough will hope to carry their FA Cup momentum into Saturday's crunch Championship clash at the fifth-placed Brentford.
Aitor Karanka's men, who sit third, played one of the main roles in a fourth round of FA Cup shocks last week... Read more

About

Blackpool Football Club was formed in 1887, emerging after the town's previous clubs, Victoria FC and Blackpool St. John's both disbanded. Nicknamed the Seasiders due to the town's location, in 1896 the club applied for membership of the Football League. This membership was revoked in 1899 when they were not re-elected to the league, but the side was granted permission to return the following year.

The early twentieth century was a period of relatively little success, during which the club spent a lot of its time in the second tier of the Football League. However, during the 1939-40 season, the club sat top of the league before the season was abandoned due to the Second World War. In the post-war years, the club began to make a legitimate challenge for silverware, reaching the FA Cup finals in both 1948 and 1951.

A third FA Cup final was reached in 1953 and would become the club's most famous match and, indeed, one of the most famous matches in the history of football. Dubbed the 'Matthews Final', Blackpool winger Stanley Matthews inspired his team to overturn a 3-1 defecit to win the match 4-3, putting in one of the greatest individual performances ever. The match also saw Stan Mortensen become the first and only player to score a hattrick in an FA Cup final at the old Wembley Stadium.

In 2010 they returned to Wembley Stadium to play Cardiff City Football Club in the play-off final for the right to play in the Premier League. This match has been dubbed the 50 million pound match as this is the figure that clubs can expect to earn from a stay in the top flight. The Seasiders triumphed 3-2 over the Bluebirds. After relegation they returned to Wembley in 2011 to take on West Ham United however they could not replicate the feat of 2010 and remained in the Championship.

Despite winning few major honours, over the years the club has been home to some legendary players, including the afforementioned Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen. In addition, World Cup winner Alan Ball achieved fame at the club between 1962 and 1966. More recently, Trevor Sinclair played over 100 matches for the club and was inducted into the club's Hall of Fame.

Bloomfield Road has been the club's home since 1901 and the stadium's record attendance of 38,098 was set in 1955. Since being renovated as an all-seater stadium, the ground's current capacity is 17,338.